This invention relates to a roll cleaning apparatus, and more particularly to an improved, modular-type roll cleaner which is substantially more compact and efficient than prior roll cleaner devices. Even more particularly this invention relates to an improved roll cleaner device having improved means for adjusting the associated cleaner cloth and sponge which applies cleaning fluid to a roll.
Heretofore contact cleaner rolls of the type described have tended to be extremely large and cumbersome in operation. U.S. Pat. No. 5,251,348, for example, discloses a contact cleaner roll assembly of the type in which a cloth cleaning roll, together with its feed roll and takeup roll are mounted on the first frame for movement as a unit radially toward and away from the process roll the surface of which is to be cleaned. The first frame, in turn, is supported on a second frame which is mounted on the machine frame for movement axially of the process roll which is to be cleaned, or in a direction normal to the direction of which the first frame is movable on the second frame. The cloth cleaning roll, which is supplied with a cleaning fluid, is urged radially into engagement with the process roll which is to be cleaned, and then is moved axially of the rotating process roll to clean its surface. Periodically the cloth is advanced to introduce a clean section of the cloth to the surface of the process roll which is being cleaned. While this apparatus is effective in cleaning process rolls, it nevertheless constitutes a rather large and expensive structure which makes it unsuitable for certain installations.
A variation of this apparatus is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,275,104, wherein instead of mounting the cleaning cloth for travel axially of the surface of the process roll that is being cleaned, the width of the cleaning cloth corresponds to the axial length of the process roll that is being cleaned, so that the tangential section of the cloth cleaning roll, which engages the surface of the process roll, extends axial length of the process roll. During a cleaning operation, a special, so-called "touch roll", which also is equal in length to the axial length of the process roll, is engaged behind the cleaning cloth to urge it into cleaning engagement with the surface of the rotating process roll. While this alternative method of cleaning a process roll has the advantage of eliminating the need for using a frame for shifting the cleaning cloth axially of the process roll that is being cleaned, it nevertheness also is unsuitable for certain operations.
It is an object of this invention, therefore, to provide an improved contact roll cleaner which is substantially smaller and inexpensive to manufacture and install, as compared to prior contact roll cleaners.
Another object of this invention is to provide an improved contact roll cleaner of the type described, which because of its compact size can be employed to clean a much larger variety of process rolls of different sizes and types, as compared to prior such roll cleaners.
A further object of this invention is to provide an improved contact roll cleaner of the type in which the pressure pad or sponge, which supplies cleaning fluid to the cleaning cloth is completely disengaged from the cloth when the cleaner is in its retracted or inoperative position.
Still another object of this invention is to provide improved rodless means for removably mounting the cloth take-up and supply rolls in a contact cleaner of the type described, and which permits the presetting of the desired tension that is to be developed in the cleaning cloth during its use.
Other objects of the invention will be apparent to those skilled in the art when the preferred embodiments are considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the appended claims.